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As for the Cabal stuff I find that part of the game boring so if we must lets get it out of the way.

Personally we don't have to deal with the positions and rights if that's not something that'll be important for the chronicle. But we should lay low some kind of code on how our cabal will operate/what obligations are to each other. I guess my inerest here specifically boils down to : I'm playing a lawyer :P

As for him being a Lictor, that is up to him, just realize that a cabal has its ways of dealing with those that betray them even if it was demanded by their order.

It's mostly a question of wether rwknoll thinks he can use this for fun storyhooks. It would give us an easy in on investigative stories within the mage community. Fluff wise I can do the same "magic lawyer" thing as a normal factotum. As for the latter part: That's more a problem with the Silver Ladder in general, but easily circumvented by taking secrecy or cabal support oaths (normals ones, not the magical ones), essentially making it law. The SL doesn't ask it's members to go against the law. Only thing you shouldn't do around him is break the Lex Magica in some definite way and expect him to be quiet about it. The punishment for corrupt Lictors is torture, followed up by execution and destruction of their soul.

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That is all and well and can be as simple as implied that we do it and with a wave of the had it is done. I games that I have played we have done all of the puff and pomp and it was for not because it never came up. The concillium has the rules already in place, to have to write them out again is ridiculous. Yes the fluff can be nice but to spend even more time before the game start just to hammer back and forth on this and that is not an attractive proposition.

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From here on out, ephemeral entities only use Rank + Influence (if relevant) to their CoW dice pool. For contested rolls, such as for Numina, they will use Rank + whichever trait is most relevant (often Power or Resistance).

Just a short note from my experience on spirit clashes: If you want Spirits (and I think Werewolves use similar clash rules) to be scary and possibly relevant oponents for this campaing you may want to think about homeruling the clash rules for them. Otherwise a starting mage character can pretty simply shield himself from them. Keep in mind that a mage can very easily acquire +5 dice on a clash of wills (for improvised spells more like ~ +3 but that's still alot). So Marduk for example could just give the whole Cabal a Spirit shield that will protect them from Numina or physical attacks by spirits or Werewolves with a Clash dicepool of 10. Meanwhile a Spirit (think the same for Werwolves) would oppose that with a roll of.... 1-5 dice, usually 1-2, maybe 3 as high ranking entities are rare. In my own experience making spirits roll Rank + an appropriate attribute makes them more competitive, they're still at a huge disadvantage because they can't keep up with mages changing the rules or simply learning and manipulating their banes, or a myriad of other things, but at least a rank 5 entity using the blast numen on you is actually very scary instead of a nonissue now when it happens.

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Hardwire99 - No, I'm still here and planning to run the game. My problem is that I've been crazy busy and have had severely limited availability to finalize everything before I'm ready to reboot the IC thread, due to work and personal obligations.

There are a few specific things I need to complete before I can start up the game again. It looks like all of you are pretty much ready to go, but I need about an hour or two to sit down and sift through my old notes about the story, update NPC info, and integrate those so I can make a cohesive story for the new chapter. But I haven't been able to find that time in the past few weeks, either at home or at work.

As long as you all are willing to wait it out a bit longer, I hope to have it up and running soon. I actually tried to stay up late a few nights ago and get things done, but I fell asleep early accidentally.

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I can definitely say that my gaming pace will be slower than some games. I will probably be able to post about every 3 days, and would like players to post at least once per week. I'll do everything I can to post more frequently than that, but I can't promise it based on how everything has been going for me lately.

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I think it'd be good if we got started soonish, since too much time passing between char creation and actual play can cause players (and storytellers) to loose their investment into the game. That said don't stress yourself, it's fine if the pace isn't the quickest

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Good news: I had some downtime this weekend to sit and do some planning about the story, so I have some cool ideas of how to create some conflict to keep everything interesting.

Flinty - I reviewed the Silver Ladder book, and you can be a Lictor if you like. If it becomes a problem from a story perspective or causes too many issues, we can find fair workarounds.

The last thing that needs to happen before we can get IC up and running is for me to review your NPC info that everyone mentioned in your backstories (if relevant) and update the NPC info as it relates to the initial chapter. I will try to do that this week, sooner rather than later!

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The NPCs should be up to date. One thing I don't think is on his sheet is that I'd like for him to get involved with the Silver Ladder efforts to help sleepers deal with their accidential visits to the shadow. This is something I'd like to come to be in play however, not part of his background as of yet.

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HaplessWithDiceFlintyHardwire99wtaylorjr2001 - Hey everyone! I'm excited to say that I have finally been able to put the rest of the work into getting our game up and running! Thank you all SO much for being patient with me this past month.

There are some posting and dice rolling conventions that I use in my PbP games that I'd like us all to use:

IC posts: When you make in-character posts, please include a header at the top of each post with your character's status (e.g., current HP and Willpower, active spells under your control, conditions). Please make sure to update this header with each new post you make. Your HP, WP, mana, etc. in each post should reflect your status at the time of that post. So for example, if you roll to contain Paradox and take bashing damage, your HP in that header should capture your new HP with that bashing damage. For any OOC information like rolls, questions, etc., please include that in your post using the [spoiler] bbcode tag.

Spellcasting: This is especially important for creative thaumaturgy, but in general, please make sure to clearly state your spell factors, assigned reach, etc. when describing your spells and including rolls. Keep this in the [spoiler] tag. See here for an example of how this looks; you can choose your own formatting, please just include these details in some way.

Dice rolls: Whenever you need to roll dice, please include a link in your post to an online dice roller that archives previous rolls with permanent links, preferably Orokos. It can elegantly roll for d10 dice games, with most rolls using a template of "Xd10h8", where X = number of dice in your pool and "h8" means that you get successes on 8 or higher. By default, this rolling code will use the 10-again quality, so make sure to roll using "Xd10o9h8" for 9-again, "Xd10o8h8" for 8-again, etc. Chance die pools use Xd10h10. In some cases, I will make rolls for you to save posting time; these will usually include Clash of Wills and Initiative.

Action pacing: When we are not in a formal initiative count, time is fluid; you can take non-reflexive actions in your posts without needing to track things like exact casting time (so feel free to use multiple Yantra for the same spell to cast with a higher dice pool, like High Speech chanting and a Path tool, even if your spellcasting would extend more than a round or two). You can even include a few actions in the same post, if relevant, but try not to overdo it.

Post pacing: I use pretty relaxed posting expectations. Please try to respond to IC posts that involve you within a week of time in real life. I try to reply to all posts as the Storyteller within 3 days of your post, when ST action or response is required. If you expect to have limited availability for an extended period of time, please let me know. If everyone is pretty active and posting more frequently, then I'll try to pick up my ST post pace accordingly.

Consecutive rolls: If you're in a tense or time-limited situation, you can make consecutive attempts on a mundane or spellcasting roll but at -1 penalty for each consecutive attempt. However, you don't get penalized for rolls that are free of time pressure.

If the spell is instant cast and does not risk Paradox, and the dice pool is above 0, I'd like you to at least roll it on the dice roller once. If it fails, you can choose to "take 1" -- basically assume you eventually cast it with 1 success, or keep rerolling if preferred. If the spell is cast as a ritual, I'd like you to roll each time; you'll take -1 consecutive rolls on the ritual because it takes up time, so there's time pressure and implications of failing the roll. For spells that risk Paradox, I'd like you to roll each attempt because of the cumulative bonuses to the Paradox roll.

Spells that fit multiple categories above use both sets of rules. So for example, instant-cast spells that risk Paradox will have the additional +1 Paradox per roll, but no cumulative -1 penalty to the roll itself. Ritual-cast spells that risk Paradox will have cumulative -1 penalty to the spell casting roll and +1 Paradox.

Mage armor and dodging: To save time for posting, whenever you are attacked and take damage and have the option to activate Mage Armor reflexively (i.e., you still have at least 1 mana left and haven't reached your max mana use per turn), you can choose to active Mage Armor retroactively and apply it to the attack that was already rolled. Similarly, if you haven't taken your turn in a combat situation and are attacked, you can choose to dodge reflexively and make your roll retroactively. Mage Armor that adds to your defense applies before doubling for dodging rolls.

Modifying rolls: When you make a roll, if you are unsure of the correct adjustment for penalties/bonuses, make your roll without them and I will modify accordingly. If I need to subtract dice, I will take them off your roll results in backwards order. If I need to add to your dice pool, I'll roll additional dice and add the successes to your previous total.

I think that's everything for now! Please post here if you have questions/concerns. Now that the thread is up and running, I hope to be able to keep things moving at a faster clip. Sorry again for the delay in starting.

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I will make rolls for you to save posting time; these will usually include Clash of Wills and Initiative.

I appreciate that, as it's kind of annoying when the game gets suspended for a week just so everyone slowly makes a post in which they only roll their initiative. Just keep in mind that clashes of wills can be bolstered by wp, so players might want to do that retroactivly if you roll the CoW for them.

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You made your spell rolls as if you still have Gnosis 3, back with your original character before we rebooted the game. At Gnosis 2, your ritual casting time interval is 3 hours and you only can use up to 2 Yantras. So you only have time for about one ritual spell before the group leaves.

In addition, even if you had enough time to cast multiple ritual spell attempts, per our game rules and conventions above, you would suffer a consecutive -1 on each roll.

Because you have 2 free reach, and you only used one, I recommend you just use another for an instant cast spell and use the "take 1" rule as needed.

In regards to your actual spell, I might have missed this, but please clarify which boon you are selecting. Are you granting yourself a certain number of 9-again rolls? Bonus to your dice pools? Or some combination?